Right then we have decided, this is going to be the year that we try to buy nothing new at all. We will be buying food obviously and seeds (for veggies) and cleaning personal hygeine without compromising ethical principles and quality, but we are aiming to buy nothing new at all. We have had a good look around the house and have decided that we have plenty. I know for one that i have more than enough clothes to get me through the year without adding to it. I may have to pick up a couple of extra pairs of trousers for Mr Spud though, he does tend to go through them. However before i do that i am going to try mending and patching the work ones that he has. With all the money that I save i want to pay it all off our mortgage.I took a chaps advise last year on the site, i cant remember who, he advised not to reduce mortgage payments- we didnt, and were very surprised at how much of the capital we cleared. Good advise. After the annual statment the payments automatically dropped, but i put the difference aside, which will be paid off the capital at the end of this month, the free months ctax will also be put aside for the mortgage. This year i am really going to see how much i can pay of. It is a personal challenge, however if push comes to shove we dont intend to suffer! everyone does deserve a treat (in moderation)

I did that partially last year - I say partially as I had to buy new clothes as none fitted me! But I did decide not to buy anything for the house. I did really well for many months, but had a couple of small relapses around Xmas. But they were small, probably only £25 in total.

What a good idea to take a clinical look around the property and life to see what's possible. Our oldest appliance is the refrigerator, and if it cooperates we'd not have to look at appliances for a long time. It would be a treat to have an iphone and when we give up the land line this spring it would not cost any more and might be less, depending...you must feel good at knocking back the mortgage, wait until you get the final payment done, then you'll really celebrate! (It feels like forever but when it comes...) I don't need any new clothes either, could probably manage unless I won a prestigious award and needed formal wear. How likely is that? Our garden saved us a lot this year and though we wish to purchase a tiller I think we'd have the value back in 2 years. Now you're got me thinking...

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all.~Emily Dickinson

Good luck with it.Read the small print of your mortgage to see when they calculate the interest.I know that at the beginning of our mortgage any you paid of reduced the capital straight away so less of your next payment was interest. Then they changed it, I think you had to overpay by a month's installment before it counted to reduce the interest. Some even calculate the interest on what you owe at the beginning of the year and nothing you do reduces it. And some have penalties for early repayment.

Unless it is reducing your interest you might be best to find an account that pays interest (there are still a few around, especially if you pay in a regular amount), then at the best time for your particular mortgage, pay a lump off.

Mortgages used to be simple, but like everything else, all this competition means they have to make them look good, and make their money on the small print.

Happy days, if you don’t need it don’t buy it. I’m terrible when it comes to cookery books and kitchen gadgets but apart from that I tend not to buy stuff because it reduces the amount of beer tokens in my pocket......

i will do this properly, i will let you know if i relapse- hopefully the tights that i have will last to may, then i will just go bare legged!The only problem is that mR S likes DVDs. I know that we can rent them, but the thing is he will watch a DVD to switch of and rewatches many of them. He has said that if it is a major blockbuster he would like it. (i have given myself a limited amount of a slush fund for things like this, any left will go into the mortgage pile. He works really hard, and earns extra sometimes so he has to have some benefits).Cash is taken out each month so bank card will be safe at home, this helps me to budget as i know what i have to spend at any one time.Mortgage rates calculated by the month, there are no penalties for paying extra of we can make as many extra payments with no charge, there is one early completion fee of £250, but that will be a long way off. These are difficult times in retail so we have to do what we can while we can, then if it all goes bottoms up in the future we should be atleast able to remortgage with lower payments if we need to.

have lost the will to go itno any shops. Before when window shopping there was aways the chance that i would come across something that will tempt me. However now that I have no intention of buying I cant see the point in going into any shops. I hav avoided all sales and stay inwork longer as there is no point in poppping into my favorate shops. This could end up being a very depressing year.

jan only saw me buying a new riddle bar and a tyre. this month so far there has been 2 dvds for mr spud (put of the money that i allocated for him) and nothing else.